A Modern Fairytale

The shapeshifter

"What I'm saying is, he was already that way."

Jena and Valerie were sitting side by side on a couch. In front of them was a full-length mirror into which Liraz had been pushed not too long ago. Elsewhere in Mecrisdale, Reginvalt was trying to trace into the history of Venethema—as it once stood, before Queen Berenice interfered—as well as the late queen's personal history. The official records were perfectly complete, of course, but none of what Valerie and Ulric discovered in Venethema that day had ever been official. Why did Queen Berenice wipe out an entire region? To create powerful weapons, yes, but why that particular region?

"Was he, really?" Valerie questioned. "I daresay the Ulric of today is a lot more...eccentric. Cynical. But if this Ulric was that Ulric and this Iefan was that Iefan—"

Jena nodded, almost enthusiastic. "The body is replaced, not the soul. He's still watching over him from above in some way even if he doesn't remember any of anything."

"Are you trying to say that you hold no grudges against me because nothing I in any of my forms ever did has ever changed the fundamentals of who he is?"

Again, Jena nodded.

"Did you ever speak to him, back when he still had a family name?" Valerie asked.

"No," Jena answered.

"So he would never know he was talking to you, even if he recalled all of those lost memories."

"Yep."

"Why?"

Jena pointed at the mirror. "He would never say any of those things to a person. Not to Lady Kalyna, not to Iefan, not to me now. I...actually, I probably shouldn't be showing it to you either, but things are different now."

"...oh, please, Jena. Not again."

"No, listen!" The raven-haired girl took Valerie's hands in her own, her eyes twinkling. "Not even Ulric with all his cynicism can escape those eyes of yours. Every time you look at somebody, it gives a feeling that you know everything that was, is, and will be."

"No."

"Come on! I'm sure there was at least once when he's been disarmed?"

"...I will not comment on that."

"I knew it!"

"Well, we're done here." Valerie withdrew and stood up. She walked to the mirror to conceal it properly again. "I do wonder where all your benevolence comes from. You've lived at least as long as Ulric has, including the short time he'd lived as a human being. You must have seen a lot of things—tragedies, atrocities, many of which were probably committed by me directly or were linked to me through my mother." Once finished with the mirror, she turned back around to face Jena, who remained seated on the couch. "Why do you remain?" she asked.

For a moment, Jena lowered her gaze in thought. When she lifted it again, she had resumed smiling. "I believe that the optimal way of life is to have good and evil balanced. You are balanced."

"Shapeshifters, Jena, only shift to one other form, and their lifespan is only as long as that other form." Valerie took a deep breath and then sighed. "You are not a shapeshifter."

☆☆☆

Half an hour later, Valerie was sitting at King Reginvalt's desk, staring at the back of a dusty bookshelf. Cadent footsteps could be heard from the other side of the bookshelf, although Valerie's gaze did not follow them.

"And you called her out, just like that?" Reginvalt asked, out of sight. "And she admitted it?"

"There was no reason for her not to." Valerie shrugged, even though he wouldn't be able to see it. "She has waited for far too long."

"She didn't even show herself in a human form in front of Ulric Lauregnory."

"He was a human boy."

"Thought he'd die soon and then forever, hm. She didn't tell Prince or King Ulric either."

"He was suffering."

Upon hearing that remark, Reginvalt stepped away from the bookshelf to peer at his childhood friend. He chuckled. "I would be a fool to believe that it has anything to do with him or anyone else she didn't tell lacking anything."

Taking a few steps further away from the bookshelf and toward Valerie, Reginvalt held out a nearly torn parchment. Valerie stood and met him halfway across the room before taking it from him carefully.

"Of course it's not about him," she said in a murmur as she read the contents of the parchment. "How does this still exist?"

"Apparently, King Corbin revived a lot of records just after his wife destroyed them—and kept them hidden the best he could, probably repenting some of his decisions to some degree and also hoping you wouldn't be as crazy as your mother."

"Am I as crazy as her?" she asked, out of nothing but curiosity.

"Not that what I say matters," he replied, "But you're probably crazier. I'm just hoping I live long enough to see how."

"You will."

"Oh?"

"Mm-hm."

On that parchment was the true family tree of Valerie's family. There were names there that she was only seeing for the first time: Tallis Echethier, Myra Jansen, Annegrette Echethier, and...Iefan Echethier.

"You're cousins," Reginvalt noted.

"Some things don't change even when you lose your body and memories." Valerie did not dispute his conclusion. She handed the parchment back to him. "And who was Ulric Lauregnory?"

"A nobody," Reginvalt said, "Son of Dorothy Lauregnory—Queen Dorothy, you know? The woman you killed."

"...interesting. Some things really don't change."

Iefan, Ulric, and Dorothy—all three had been turned into false angels. It had been Ulric first, and then Dorothy; without either of the two remembering the lives they'd lived as humans, Dorothy adopted Ulric as her son, and they lived together until Valen transferred the Venethema crown to Ulric. Iefan, initially exempt from the same fate, returned to Venethema after many years, and the human blood in him caused him to be the last complete false angel. But, why did he return? Why did he leave in the first place? This was information that even Jena's memories could not provide; she had been with Ulric the whole time.

"Anything on Tallis Echethier?" Valerie asked.

"Only that he disappeared."

"Into Venethema."

"Very likely; unconfirmed."

She let out a thoughtful hum. As the two stood there in the middle of the room, Valerie had her gaze lowered, and Reginvalt had his on her, reading her thought process from her expressions alone.

"The soul remembers even if the mind forgets," Valerie reiterated under her breath. "Iefan—"

"Is it that important?" Reginvalt interjected, "You can't change what already happened, and everybody that was ever involved in anything is either dead or false angels that won't remember or know anything unless you bring them to the mirror. Are you...?"

He didn't finish the question, but her gaze shifted to him just before he trailed off.

"My mother's soul remained relevant until very recently, Reginvalt," said she, "The truth matters, and he's strong enough."

"Which one?"

"Iefan," came her immediate answer. Then, she added, "Both of them, but Iefan is the one that's involved."

He only sighed.

"Don't get me wrong," she said, "I'm content. I wouldn't change a thing even if I could, and I'm not searching for ghosts. All I aim to do is make sure the past won't haunt us simply because we didn't know about it soon enough."

"And if Iefan's soul doesn't know everything you want to know?"

"It would still bring us closer to the truth."

Reginvalt arched an eyebrow. "'Us', eh?"

Valerie rolled her eyes. "Shut up."

"Pft."